in recess—said with reference to a period in which a legislative body is not sitting, or to a break during court proceedings:
- Congress is now in recess until the first week of December.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase in recession—used of a period of economic decline:
- Investors poured into Asia because their own economies were in recession.
in the recess—in an indented or hollowed-out space set into a wall:
- The street was deserted except for a man standing in the recess of the entry to the apartment building.